Hundreds arrested in Paris as tax protesters riot

A burned car in a street of Paris on December 2, 2018, a day after clashes during a protest of Yellow vests (Gilets jaunes) against rising oil prices and living costs.
(Image credit: Geoffrey van der Hasselt/Getty Images)

More than 220 people were arrested in Paris on Saturday as "yellow vest" protesters assembled for the third straight weekend.

Authorities say around 100 people were injured when some demonstrators rioted, vandalizing the Arc de Triomphe, attacking police, and damaging and looting cars and stores. The French government may impose a state of emergency.

French President Emmanuel Macron plans to initiate a dialogue with the yellow vests, but a government representative, Benjamin-Blaise Griveaux, said policy changes are not being considered. "We won't change course. It's the right direction. We are certain of that," Griveaux affirmed in a radio interview.

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The demonstrators are angry about Macron's presidency, rising taxes, and high costs of living more broadly. "Our purchasing power is severely diminishing every day. And then: taxes, taxes, and taxes," Paris resident Hedwige Lebrun told The Associated Press. "The state is asking us to tighten our belts, but they, on the contrary, live totally above all standards with our money."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.